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ciscans. They held up their founder, even during his life, as the perfect pattern of our Lord and Saviour; and, to authenticate the parallel, they exhibited him with a wound in his side, and four nails in his hands and feet, fixed there, they affirmed, by Christ himself, who had visibly appeared for the purpose of thus rendering the conformity between them complete! Two miserable wretches, only two years before, had attempted the same dreadful fraud in England, and having been detected in it, were punished by actual crucifixion! But in the case of St. Francis, it succeeded to the fullest extent of expectation. Whether he consented to the villany, or was in such a state of moral and physical imbecility, as to have been the dupe or the victim of those about him; and whether it was committed with the connivance of the Papal Court, or only in certain knowledge that that Court would sanction it when done, though it might not deem it prudent to be consenting before the fact, . . . are questions which it is now impossible to resolve. Sanctioned, however, the horrible imposture was by that Church which calls itself infallible: a day for its perpetual commemoration was appointed in the Romish Kalendar; and a large volume was composed, entitled the Book of the Conformities between the lives of the blessed and seraphic Father Francis and our Lord!

Jealous of these conformities, the Dominicans followed their rivals in the path of blasphemy,... but with unequal steps. They declared that the five wounds had been impressed also upon St. Dominic; but that, in his consummate humility, he had prayed and obtained that this signal mark of Divine grace might never be made public while he lived. They affirmed that the Virgin Mary had adopted him for her son, and that his countenance perfectly resembled the authentic description and miraculous portrait of our Saviour. The envious enmity between these orders displayed itself in these competitions of falsehood, and in theological or scholastic controversy, upon those points whereon it was allowable to dispute: on such questions the Dominicans and Franciscans were always opposed to each other; but they held a common cause against the Reformers, and against the secular clergy, whose rights and privileges they invaded in many ways, in some respects to the benefit of the Church, in others to its injury. As itinerant preachers they called forth devotional

feelings, which would otherwise never have been excited, and performed some of that duty which the parochial clergy in those ages very generally neglected; as itinerant confessors, they lessened the influence of the resident priest, and the little good which may arise from the demoralizing practice of confession; and as licensed and incorporated beggars, they preyed at large upon the public. Being exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, that salutary restraint was wanting of which such preachers stood in need. But what most offended the secular clergy, because it most injured them, was that, as the earlier Regulars had done before them, the Mendicants obtained from their opulent patrons the advowsons of livings, which they served by some of their own members, or allowing a secular priest a small portion of the income, appropriated the larger part to the uses of the convent in which the patronage was vested. For it was soon found convenient to dispense with that part of their institution which forbade them to possess any thing as a community.

The influence which these orders obtained was, for a time, prodigious; it was produced partly by the pure enthusiasm of the virtuous members, . . . partly by the reputation of others; (for they could boast some of the subtlest and profoundest intellects that the world has ever seen ;) . . . and partly by the implicit belief with which their enormous fables were received. Elated by success, and, as it seems, secretly conscious how little the system which they taught resembled the religion of the Apostles, they conceived a plan for superseding the Gospel; and this was so congenial to the temper of both orders, that it is doubtful whether it proceeded from a Dominican or Franciscan. The opinion which they started was, that as there were three Persons in one Godhead, the scheme of Providence was, that there should be three dispensations, one from each Person. That of the Father had terminated when the Law was abolished by the Gospel; that of the Son was now drawing, in like manner, to its close, and was to be superseded by that of the Holy Spirit. The uses of the Gospel therefore were obsolete; and in its place they produced a book, in the name of the Holy Ghost, under the title of the Eternal Gospel. The first dispensation had been for married persons: this had prepared the way for the Clergy in the second; the Regulars, being as much purer than the

Clergy, as these were than the Jews and Patriarchs, were, under the third, to become rulers of the Church, with greater authority than had ever been granted to the Apostles. Under the first, men had lived after the flesh; under the second, in a mixed state between the flesh and the spirit; in the third, they would live wholly according to the spirit, and the scheme of Providence would be fulfilled. In this, however, they went too far: the minds of men were not yet subdued to this. The Eternal Gospel was condemned by the Church; and the Mendicants were fain to content themselves with disfiguring the religion which they were not allowed to set aside.

The Church of Rome cleared itself of this infamy; but the reproach remained of having sanctioned the impostures which emboldened the Friars to so blasphemous an attempt; and circumstances arose which converted some of these auxiliaries into dangerous enemies. When the successors of Francis relaxed the rigour of his rule, they were opposed by brethren more sincere, but less reasonable, than themselves. These pure enthusiasts maintained, that the utter renunciation of all possessions was enjoined by Christ himself, whose Gospel their patriarch had renewed; and when the Pope condemned this opinion as an heresy, they denied his authority, and attacked him as vehemently as the Waldenses and Albigenses had done, who by their means had been crushed. Irritated at this, the Pope let loose the Dominicans against them; and that Order, for ever infamous as having founded the Inquisition, had the satisfaction of persecuting these Spiritual Franciscans, and seeing many hundreds of them expire in the flames, with constancy worthy of a better cause. A schism in the Papal Church, and a fortunate dispute between the Popes and Emperors, enabled others to find an asylum in Germany, where in safety they continued their attacks upon the Papacy; and by exposing its rapacity, its inconsistency, and its crimes, prepared the way for the great reformation which was at hand.

The first discontent in England was provoked by the manner in which the Popes abused their victory in that country. They had acted with consummate policy during the struggle; but rapacity is short-sighted, and a people who gave full credit to all their frauds, and yielded implicit obedience to their pretensions,

felt and resented the merciless extortions which were practised upon them by the Pope's agents, and by the foreigners upon whom the best benefices were bestowed. In the reign of Henry III., the Italians, who were beneficed here, drew from England more than thrice the amount of the King's revenues, fleecing, by means of Priests, who were aliens also, the flock which they never fed. Repeated statutes were made against this evil. A set of Lombards, too, established themselves here, in connexion with the Legates, to advance money upon all sums due to the Pope, for which they exacted the most exorbitant usury, though all usury was prohibited as a sin by the Canon Law. The Government also began to apprehend serious injury from the multiplication of Religious Houses; apprehensions were expressed that men would be wanting for the service of husbandry and for war, if so many were collected in convents; and a real diminution in the revenue was felt in the failure of knight-service, and of the rights accruing to the Crown upon marriages, deaths, and wardships; . . . accidents to which Church lands were not liable. The statute of mortmain was passed to prevent farther foundations; and from the various devices for evading it, the greater number of our fictions in law have arisen.

This law appears to have given what had now become a more useful direction to the spirit of munificent bounty which prevailed during those ages; dark ages we call them, and dark they were, . . . but in this splendid virtue they have never been surpassed, and all subsequent times are shamed by comparison with them. It was now that the Universities received their chief endowments; their utility was clearly perceived, and persons who were desirous of contributing to their improvement or advancement, easily obtained a dispensation from the statute, for so good an object. The Friars, who, by their assiduity and boldness, forced themselves everywhere, interfered here as much with the rights of the Universities as they had done with those of the Secular Clergy. Their desire was, to recruit their numbers with the most hopeful subjects; and as the most promising youth were brought together to these schools of learning, there were no places where they collected so many novices. The boys whom they inveigled were taught to disregard filial duty; ... the more averse indeed their parents were to their taking the vows, the greater

the merit was represented of the children who made the sacrifice. This was carried to such an extent, that parents became afraid to trust their sons at Oxford; and the number of students is said to have been diminished, in consequence, from thirty to six thousand.' The Friars therefore were regarded with an evil eye by the members of that University, from the duties of which they endeavoured to exempt themselves, as they had obtained an exemption from its jurisdiction. And when there appeared a man bold enough to attack them upon the principle of their institution and the errors which they taught, and skilful enough in disputation to baffle them at their own weapons, he was encouraged by the persons in authority there.

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This man was John Wicliffe, whom the Roman Church has stigmatized as a heretic of the first class, but whom England and the Protestant world, while there is any virtue and while there is any praise, will regard with veneration and gratitude. He is supposed to have been born at a village of the same name, in the North Riding, upon the Tees (near the place where that river, in the most beautiful part of its course, receives the Yorkshire Greta) and having been a Commoner at Queen's College, at that time newly founded, and then a Probationer at Merton, was appointed2 Master of Balliol. At first he exercised himself in disputing against the Friars upon scholastic subtleties and questions which, ending in nothing, as they begin, exercise the intellect without enriching it. But such being the manner of controversy then in use, this was a necessary preparation for him; and the reputation, which thus only could be obtained, was available to a better purpose, when feeling his own strength, and that the opinion of the place was with him, he charged them with maintaining false doctrine. For they taught, that the religion which they inculcated was more perfect than that of the Gospels: that Christ had not only enjoined a life of mendicity, but set the example of it, by begging for his own livelihood; and that the members of their Order were sure of obtaining salvation, and would sit in judgement with our Lord upon all other men at the last day.

1 Lewis's Life of Wicliffe, p. 5.

2 L'Enfant (Hist. du Con. de Pise. t. i. p. 38) says, that Wicliffe was confessor to Richard II. He has not stated on what authority this is asserted.

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